Witchaven is a commercial
BUILD Engine game designed by Capstone. This was the
first BUILD game Capstone made and the first BUILD Game Released. First Witchaven, Then
TekWar. the others came later.

THE SPELL IS CAST! A FIRST PERSON, MEDIEVAL
ACTION ADVENTURE WITH ROLE-PLAYING ELEMENTS.

Descend into a dark and gruesome nightmare! You
alone must face evil within the volcanic pit of the Island of
Char, toward the mystical lair of Witchaven. Confront witches
that have cast a shadow of evil spells shrouding
you in the never-ending darkness. Make use of your magic, might
and mind as you engage in bloody warfare with
vile demons and monsters. Use medieval weapons to destroy these
creatures of the night and cease the chaos. Dare
to enter this 3D Hell...Dare to enter Witchaven!

DESCRIPTION

Grondoval (player), a knight from the land of Stazhia,
has been just chosen to travel to the Island of Char,
beyond the Veil in the realms of Chaos. Descending into a
volcanic pit on the Island, you must fight your way through
goblins, demons and other sorts of fiends toward the mystical
lair of Witchaven to defeat the evil witch, Illwhyrin who has
cast a spell to curse the land of Stazhia with a shroud of
darkness and by using a gateway created by the humans to let the
hoard of evil invade our world. Lord VerKapheron ventured beyond
the Veil in the Realms of Chaos to undo her progress, he didn't
consider the forces he would encounter in his quest to be
formidable. Illwhyrin, sacrificed
the foolish humans who dared to venture there. The witch's
present goal is to remove the magical barrier known as the Veil,
which serves as a portal to her Realm of Darkness. Fortunately the
Veil is very powerful and has kept most of the creatures and their
minions captive. Nevertheless they are trying to open it
permanently to allow them to enter from their world to ours. Should she succeed,
unspeakable evil shall arrive and consume the world. Grondoval
must defeat Illwhyrin's demonic minions, reach the core of
Witchaven, and defeat her before they can open the gateway.

Witchaven is a combination of a traditional RPG
and first-person fantasy slasher. On the role playing side you
find a classic rudimentary RPG experience level system which
gives you access to more powerful spells and better use of
weapons. You get experience
points when you find specific items and when killing an enemy.
There are some magic potions, health potions, poison, strength,
invisibility, magic rings, amulets, etc. scattered around the
levels. Weapons include such as knives, swords, bows, morning
stars, battle axes, throwing axes, and halberds. Most of the
combat is close in which the handling of weapons is necessary.
The weapons wear out quickly which means that after a certain
number of hits, depending on the nature of the weapon, it
becomes damaged, and then unusable. The Armor in the game is
also variable in the number of hits and damage prevention. Chain
mail will stop 75% of the damage while leather armor only 50%.
Similarly, chain mail will wear out quicker than plate armor.
For long distance you can have the bow, The handling of the bow
requires arrows and skill. Some spells are available that can be
used from a greater range, but they are scare; Night Vision,
Fly, Fireball, and Nuke!, are available via scrolls you find.
The more powerful spells require that you have attained a
certain experience level (Nuke, which obliterates your
opponents, requires you to be level 5 to cast.)

You have a certain degree of freedom of
movement, an optional superimposed map, keys specific to each
door, the game is divided into levels, protections and powerups,
teleports, four difficulty levels with the respawn of monsters
as the toughest. If you like the slash and dice kind of thing,
it is possible in the blood and gore menu to choose the blood
option. The only difference with this option set on is that when
you hit a monster you'll see blood and guts flying every where!
Although it contains a setting that allows you to tone down the
gore, even with this setting on, it's a very violent and
gruesome commercial game for its time.

A good effort was made in the animation, with the hacking and
slashing by the hero employed good effects. Some weapons have
two kinds of attacks, which were all very well drawn. The sounds
are good and go very well with the game in every situation. The
quality of the sounds for normal or magical combat and the bow
firing are extremely well produced. The music is also quite nice
for the genre.

FEATURES /
TECHNOLOGY

Game:

Duck, jump and fly! To fly, cast the spell and
use INSERT to go Up and DELETE to go Down, combine
that with forward or back movement to fly around,
the END cancels the spell.
The F key (follow mode), while viewing the map allows
you to move the map around and release it to appear
where you left off. With the map off the F key
allows you to move very fast, faster than running,
with the combination of movement keys. It also
allows while holding down F and moving the mouse to
lookup and lookdown.

Bloodthirsty monsters with advanced
intelligence, seek you out and engage in relentless
battle. There are three different races of goblins
and two races of ogres. The different tribes will
attack each other on-sight. But your their primary
focus.

Experience heart-pounding game play with stunning
SVGA graphics (640x480) and a fully-rendered 3D
cinematic introduction.

Tunnels, crypts, lava pits and secret chambers
are part of this innovative game design with endless
puzzles & plots. Explore this massive playing field
with dozens of intricate maps.

Gut-wrenching special effects with swirling
bats, cracking floors, pits of molten lava, arrows
that stick into anything in their path, and much
more!

Mouse calibration: F12 then use your movement
keys to speed up or slow down the y axis. (adds x
axis only with patch).

Network play for up to 16 and head-to-head Modem
play. * Capture The Flag *
Each castle has a marked spot (Pentagram) which you
must bring your enemy flags back to. You can pick up
your flag and hide it in any location by walking
over it to pick it up, and pressing the space bar to
place it. The flags in the bottom right hand corner
represent the number of points each team has. To
steal opponents flags, simply jump over the opponent
to snatch his flag from him, or smack him with one
of your weapons; This will cause him to drop his
flag.

Sound:

Stomach turning original sound effects and
CD-Quality music. Along with MIDI. I'm pretty sure
all in game sounds are mono.

Art:

The art is high quality, most are drawn, few are
3D-rendered. The weapon animations are
good. There is some digitized art.

More Details:

Arrows and thrown Pike Axes stick in the walls and
stay there at the same angle they went in. You can
climb on the arrows, there blocking. But you can
only
retrieve the Pike Axes from the wall. Water and Lave flows can be entered,
while in the water or lava your movement is reduced.
No underwater swimming. When blood or guts are stuck
on a moving wall, they will fall when the wall
reaches the ceiling and pool on the floor. There is ROR on map
2 with a spiral stair case, and map 6,9 with a
passageway that goes under. Sprite elevators and
sprite doors that open. Some of the creatures attack
each other intentionally. There are flat sprite wall chains to open or operate secret passage ways.
There are floor activated switches but they appear
to be tagged flat sprites. Enemies can step up onto
raised surfaces. Teleports to send you across the
map. Also the level ending "teleports"/loads the new
map instantly. Translucent walls and floors that you
can enter or fall through. Also the game makes use of the
function (F-Keys) to expand on the controls.

WEAPONS

Fists
(Weapon 1)
- Each punch does 1 to 5 points of damage.

Dagger
(Weapon 2)
- Each slashing attack does 5 to 8 points of damage, 10 to 15
for stabbing.

Break Hits:
Each weapon breaks or dulls by an undisclosed number of hits.
The short sword is the weakest in quality while the two handed
sword is the strongest.

Weapon Proficiencies:
As you gain experience you can use two weapons at the same time.

ITEMS

Scrolls and Spell Book
Scrolls - Charges your spell book. There is a
scroll for every spell.
Spellbook - Select your spell then use the ` key to cast spell.

Scare Spell
(F1) - Invokes deep fear into an enemy for four seconds per
experience level. Works on the weaker minded creatures.

Night Vision Spell
(F2) - You can see in the dark. Lasts ten seconds per experience
level.

Freeze Spell
(F3) - A Ball of energy draws heat from creatures in a line of 3
feet per experience level. Making them brittle enough that one
blow will shatter them. Fire based creatures are immune. You
cannot attack at melee range.

Pentagram
- You must collect one then find the exit before you can move
onto the next level.

Blue Potion
- Adds 25 health points.

Green Potion
- Gives you more strength for 30 seconds. Allows you to do x2
double damage.

Orange Potion
- Cures poison.

Red Potion
- Immunity from fore for 30 seconds.

Brown Potion
- Turns you invisible for 30 seconds. Creatures have a fifty
percent chance to see you when you attack.

Adamantine Ring
- Protects as if its Plate Armor, but gives no armor points.

Onyx Ring
- Protection from missile attacks.

Sapphire Ring
- Protection from fire attacks for a limited time.

Blue
Scepter - Ability to walk on water, limited to the level you
found it on.Yellow
Scepter - Ability to walk on lava, limited to the level you
found it on.

Quivers
- Adds to the amount of arrows you have.

Shield
- Gives 50 points of armor and protects like Plate Mail. Also it
can inflict 5 to 8 points of damage when used as an attack, like
a dagger. You must be using a one handed weapon to allow for the
shield. It can be damaged and rendered useless.

Treasure
Chest - They contain something that may help you or harm you
(exploding chest).

Wooden
Barrel - They usually contain something to help you.

Glass Skull
- Adds one experience level.

ENEMIES

Rat
- They run away from you.

Spider
- They have a poison's bite.

Skeleton
- They claw at you.

Brown Ogre
- The Weakest. They hammer you with their fists.

Green Ogre
- Higher Intellect. (I don't this one is in the game)

Red Ogre
- The Keenest and strongest.

Forest Goblins
- The weakest.

Mountain Goblins
- Loyal to the Witches. Average in strength and intelligence.

Desert Goblins
- Strongest and most cunning.

Lava Fiend
- They attack with fire.

Mino Drake
- Stubborn and intelligent. They attack with large battle axes.

Grey Witch
- Summon Spiders and attack with both a stream of sludge and
venomous touch.

Skeletal Witches
- They attack with a fiery of magical missiles.

Guardian
- Spit balls of fire at all living
things. Some hang on the walls.

Scary - They appear out of nowhere randomly and make contact.
(Not sure what they do to you, besides scare you.)

Willow Wisp - Are usually followed by a red wisp. They attack
with fireballs at a distance and drain experience levels on
contact.

Dragon
- They attack with long columns of fire.

Midian
- They guard Illwhyrin. There are Purple and Blue one's too. The
Purple may cast fireballs before they charge attack on you.

Illwhyrin
- Attacks by raising the dead, using fire attacks, and summoning
minions.

CHEAT CODES

While
playing the game, press the backspace key (default controls) to
bring up the message prompt (pause game), and type in the
following and hit Enter.

3 Level Interactive Preview, Experience Real Game Play
For HOURS of Entertainment!

Deep within the volcanic pit of the island of Char lies the
mystical lair of Witchaven. There, witches older than time
itself cast a shadow of evil spells that shroud your people
in never-ending darkness. The power of demons grows as the
sun sinks below the horizon. Tonight the beast is hungry.

Only you can lift the curse. Using your wits, spells,
weapons, and courage conquer the demons and creatures who
stand watch over the darkness. Defeat demon-spawns and their
creators. Return your people to the light.

Tarry not, friends, begin your preparations, now. Play
the Witchaven Interactive Preview and glimpse into the
hellish pit of Char and tremble.

Witchaven. Witchaven was re-released by US Gold
in Europe and softkey/The Learning
Company years later.

THE SPELL IS CAST! A FIRST PERSON, MEDIEVAL ACTION ADVENTURE WITH
ROLE-PLAYING ELEMENTS.

Descend into a dark and gruesome nightmare! You alone must face evil within
the volcanic pit of the Island of Char, toward the mystical lair of Witchaven. Confront witches that have cast a
shadow of evil spells shrouding you in the never-ending darkness. Make use of your magic, might and mind as you
engage in bloody warfare with vile demons and monsters. Use medieval weapons to destroy these creatures of the
night and cease the chaos. Dare to enter this 3D Hell...Dare to enter Witchaven!

Features.

Duck, jump and fly! Using the powerful "Build" engine, exclusively
licensed from 3D REALMS. Witchaven has a greater degree of movement,
perspective, flight and control...It's like no other first-person game!
Non-stop gruesome action above and below the player's view.

348 pages. Includes hints and full solutions to the puzzles, descriptions of the
various plots, list of combat weapons, guide to the spells, original artwork and
behind-the-scenes with the game creators.